Shrewsbury Town are getting better insists boss Matt Taylor
Matt Taylor says he can see his Shrewsbury Town side growing week by week after they scored late for the second consecutive game.
Taylor Perry’s 87th-minute goal earned Shrews a deserved point against Cambridge at Abbey Stadium at the weekend.
With the way the season has played out for Town in front of goal, it would have been easy for Taylor’s team to roll over and fall to an away defeat after falling behind.
But they did not. They stayed in the game and got the equaliser they deserved, just like the week before when they scored a winner in the 91st minute.
“Look, there is growth in the group,” Taylor said about the last few weeks.
“When I look at the last three performances, I can see we are getting better.
“Things, I believe, are getting better. I think a month ago we probably wouldn’t have got a point. That is me being brutally honest with my assessment of the group.
“That group is together, and that is massively important for me. They are willing to work for each other.
“I thought Tunmise (Sobowale) came on and made a difference, and that is what it is going to take.
“You have to understand that you cannot play well every week, but what we have done this week is changed the narrative.
“Do you know why it is? Because we scored a goal in the 87th minute and it seemed to give us the impetus to go on and win the game.
“We had some good chances up to those points and did not take it.
“I was standing there thinking is it going to be another one of those days, but it wasn’t. So I am chuffed to bits for the players.
“I thought probably a point they will be happy and we will be happy away from home.
“It is a work in progress and we always knew that.
“But what you see is a group of men who are together, and I can only ask them to do their best.
“What you saw at the weekend was a group that did that.”
Town were up against it on Saturday. They were without seven players who would start most weeks – either through injury or international calls ups.
They have a week now to prepare for their next clash which will see them take on Derby County at the Meadow.
Taylor will be hoping Nohan Kenneh and Max Mata return from international duty fully fit and ready to go.
He said: “We are most definitely pushing the limits of the players that we have available at the moment and we will continue to do that.
“Then, as and when we start to get players back from injury and the two boys return from international duty, it will make my job really difficult because I’ve got to pick a team that can try and get a result against a Derby team that I’m sure will want to come to our stadium and get three points.”
n Shrewsbury, meanwhile, have been drawn at home to League Two Colchester in the FA Cup first round. The tie will take place on the weekend of Saturday, November 4.
